The hard way around
by Loke0
Summary: Torn doesnt realize how he feels for Jinx, until something really bad happens. Oneshot TornxJinx


I wonder if this really is the only TornxJinx fic out there XD oh well. I dunno why I like this pairing, but I thought it would be fun to try.

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It was a calm evening at the naughty ottsel. Torn was trying to read some maps at one of the tables, with Jinx seated next to him. Jak was relaxing opposite of him, enjoying a colorful drink and Daxter was flirting with Tess by the bar. Everything was very quiet and calm, the only sound coming from Jinx's fly-hunt. Torn made a face as the blonde man hit his palm on the table for the ninth time in five minutes, trying to catch the annoying fly that refused to leave them alone.

"Jinx", the redhead growled and looked up from the map he was currently studying. "Cant you stop that? You're ruining my concentration." Jak grinned, taking a sip of his red-ish drink.

"That fly is ruining MY concentration!" the explosives expert stated, this time trying to catch it while it was flying.

"What could you possibly have to concentrate on?" Torn asked, clearly irritated. Jinx gave him a drunken smile.

"You." Both Jak's and Torn's eyes grew wider and they stared at the blonde for a long time before the tattoed man shoke his head, turning back to look at his map. Jinx laughed and slipped off the sofa to move over to the bar and Torn turned his head, watching the other man go. When he turned back, Jak smiled at him, shaking his head.

"Jinx sure is strange sometimes", Jak commented and put the glass down on the table, watching as the said man was trying to have a seat on one of the bar stools but missed it completely, falling to the floor in a heap. It set off a laughing attack from Daxter, who had a hard time breathing because he was laughing so hard. Tess sighed and shoke her head slowly.

"Boys..", she muttered. Torn turned at the noise, to check what was going on behind his back. He frowned when saw Jinx on the floor, giving off strange noises which you could see as laughter. The redhead raised to his feet, but then sat down again. Jak watched him curiously. He stood up again and went to check on Jinx. He wondered why he even bothered doing it. The crazy bastard only had himself to blame for the state he was in, but for some reason, Torn had mercy on him, deciding to help him up.

"You're more trouble than you're worth", Torn stated as he grabbed the man around his upper body, attempting to pull him up. Daxter giggled, watching them from the bar. When finally getting Jinx to his feet, the tattoed man was about to go back to his work when he felt a hand grabbing his arm.

"What?" Jinx stared at him, eyes a little infocused.

"Where are you going?" Torn sighed and pulled his arm free.

"Back to work..", he answered, unpatiently and took a step forward. Then something very unexpected happened. Someone's hand smacked his butt, and he figured that this someone was most likely Jinx. His face turned to a deep shade of red as he slowly turned around, glaring daggers at the other man. The explosives expert gave him an innocent grin. Jak had almost spit the liquid in his mouth out, at the sight of Jinx smacking Torn's butt and even him had to join in on Daxter's laughing. Tess was just watching with her hand over her mouth. To Jinx's surprise, Torn grabbed his shoulders, slamming his back into one of the pillars in the room, pinning him to it.

"Do that again and I'll...." he paused. "Just stop bothering me!" Jinx swallowed, but remained pretty calm.

"Why?" he had to ask. Torn sighed heavily.

"Because I have work to do, and I'm trying to do something to change this war to the better. All you do is fooling around! You're not taking anything seriously, are you?! Just...stop bothering me!" he was utterly surprised when Jinx pushed him away, making him stumble backwards, losing his balance slightly.

"Fine...I'll just...go blow something up." The blonde man wobbled towards the door.

"Yea, you do that!" Torn yelled after him, not caring about the sad touch to the other man's voice. Jak watched him warily as he sat down again.

"Arent you a little too..harsh now?" the younger elf dared to ask.

"Harsh?!" Torn spat."Did you see what he did?!" Jak made a face as Tess's hand connected with the back of Torn's head.

"Hey?!" the redhead turned around, glaring at the woman. "What was that for?!"

"This is getting yummy", Daxter said, giggling from his place on her shoulder.

"Why did you say that to him?!" Tess demanded to know, placing her hands on her hips.

"Yea!" came the drunk ottsel's loud voice. "Why did you say that to him?!" Torn growled and Jak tried to stop himself from starting to giggle as well.

"Because it's the truth! Now please let me do my work."

"You should go after him. Tell him you're sorry!" Tess ordered him, but he just shoke his head.

"I'm not gonna do that." He didnt care for whatever reply he would get, he just turned to his maps. Eventuelly, Tess and Daxter left him alone. When he'd been staring at the same spot at the same map for five minutes, he sighed and pushed away from the table, leaning against the backsupport.

"You ok, Torn?" Jak asked carefully. He was playing a little with his empty glass, waiting patiently for his friend to answer.

"Yea...just tired...that's all." The redhead sighed, feeling stupid to try and convince himself that he was fine when he wasnt, and he couldnt work anymore right now either, because Jinx had distracted him for the rest of the night. He couldnt think of anything else but all those strange things the other man had done today. A sudden pain in his chest made him look up at the door, thinking that maybe he shouldnt have been so mean.

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Jinx walked down the street, making his way towards the parts of the city that were cut off. He stopped to watch the burning ruins of what once used to be a store. Some freedom league guards were holding the metalheads off, apparently too busy to see him sneaking past them. As he looked around the voilated buildings, he realized how devastated the city had become. As he walked further into the city, he noticed a tapping sound behind him and turned around. To his surprise, three metalheads head followed him. The lizard-like creatures stopped as he did, tilting their heads to the sides, studying the man with their glowing eyes.

"What do you want? Leave me alone!" he swung slightly where he stood, trying to focus his eyes on them. He watched them for a moment and then turned to continue his walk, but stopped soon again as the tapping was still following him. Sighing, he turned around once again.

"What now?" the metalheads approached him a little but stopped a distance away. "Are you gonna eat me? I taste bad, really bad, I promise. You dont wanna do that", he ensured them, somehow thinking that they would listen. One of them made a barking/growling kind of sound. Jinx lost his balance a little but soon regained it. He shoke his head and waved at them to go away and then kept on walking. Everything was quiet for a few seconds, before the tapping sound came back. This time, the blonde fumbled with his gun, before really getting a hold of it and turned back to the metalheads, opening fire.

"Yeah bithces! That's what happens if you mess with me!" he lowered his gun slowly as the creatures fell to the ground, wriggling in pain before stopping to move all together. "Dont tell me I didnt warn you..." he put his gun back in its holder and turned to continue his interrupted walk, but stopped dead in his tracks. Before him was a crowd of metalheads, every single one of them staring at him with hunger in their eyes.

"Ok..I'm out of here", he turned carefully, starting his way back the way he came, watching the creatures over his shoulder. They slowly started following him, making hissing, wheezing sounds. Jinx quickened his pace a little and noticed that the metalheads did as well.

"Shit.." he made a run for it, expecting to get back to the center of the city if he just hurried. No guards could be seen anywhere and no vehicles of some sort either. He cried out as something sharp sunk into his leg, going right through the boot. A small insect-looking metalhead had bitten him but he easily kicked it away. The bigger ones had closed in on him, running towards him at full speed. At first, he started limping as fast as he could but realized he couldnt escape them, so he stopped, taking his gun out to fire at them. The first shoots took out at least three of them, making a fourth one stumble over one of its fallen comrades.

"Eat lead!" he shouted with confidence and pulled the trigger, only to realise that the loud sound of a fired bullet was replaced with a clicking sound. He pulled the trigger again and again but nothing happened. He backed up, feeling his back coming in contatc with a pillar behind him. The five remaining metalheads sneaked up towards him slowly, beginning to circle their prey. Jinx gasped and dropped his gun as one of the creatures came a little too close, brushing its tail against his leg. He swallowed, not daring to move. One of the metalheads nudged at his bleeding leg and he whimpered at the pain, closing his eyes hard. He had to get out of this mess somehow, but the thought of running was impossible, because of his leg. As the biggest of the creatures walked in front of him, he kicked at it, making it stumble back slightly, but it soon regained its balance and threw itself at him, pinning him to the ground. Jinx hissed, trying to get it off him, with little success. The metalhead growled, clawing hungrily at his body, leaving bleeding scratches.

"Damn...", the man hissed, trembling in pain. Suddenly, the big animal roared, sinking its big sharp teeth deep into his neck. Jinx opened his mouth in a silent scream, only being able to let out strangled, gaggling noises. He struggled to breathe as the teeth were removed, dizzyness clouding his mind and his heart racing painfully fast. Two of the other metalheads started to claw at his body as well, one biting down onto his leg and this time he screamed, making his bleeding neck hurt even more. He'd never experienced such pain before. He tried to move but his body refused to respond. _So this is it? _He thought. _I never thought I'd die like this..._ Somewhere back in his clouded mind, he could hear the sounds of guns firing and the metalhead on top of him collapsed, its blood trickling down his cheek. He groaned as he felt something or someone pulling the creaturs off his body and the familiar sound of a human voice reached his bruised ears. He howled in pain as someone touched him and the hand was quickly pulled back.

"Move out of the way", a somehow familiar voice said. The two guards did as they were told, standing up, looking around warily for more metalheads. Sig crouched down, putting his gun away.

"Oh god...Jinx?" the blonde didnt answer. He wasnt sure he could have even if he'd wanted to. His ear twitched a little and then everything went black.

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Later that evening, Torn, Jak, Tess and Daxter were still at the naughty ottsel. The girl and the ottsel were busy snuggling by the bar and Jak was gulping down his fourth drink for the night while Torn was collecting his maps in a pile, ready to get some good sleep. They all stopped what they were doing and looked up as someone knocked on the door. Without waiting for someone to allow him in, Sig stepped into the bar, carrying something neither of the others could identify at the moment. The otherwise cheerful wastelander stepped up to the table in the middle, putting down what seemed to be a human and unwrapped the blanket aound the body. Both Jak and Torn raised to their feet slowly.

"What..who..?" Torn walked up to the table on unsteady legs, Jak following close behind.

"The freedom league guards medic patched him up as much as he could...There was nothing more we could do..", his voice was very low, and he looked down at the table, not wanting to meet the others' eyes. Tess and Daxter approached them as well, wanting to know what was going on.

"No....", Torn felt himself trembling,a sharp pain finding its way into his chest. Angst and guilt overtook him completely. "No.....", he placed his tembling hands on the table to be able to stand up right.

"God...", Jak leaned down over Jinx's teared up body. "What happened?" he asked, shocked, trying to look Sig in the eyes. The big man just turned away, making a face.

"I'm not sure...I was on my way back out in the desert when I saw a few guards in need of help. The number of metalheads just seem to increase all the time..So I helped them and then we heard someone scream and we...well...some of those disgusting creatures had attacked him.." everything went silent, the only sound that could be heard at the moment was Tess's heavy breathing. Torn hadnt really been listening to what the wastelander had said. He'd been too shocked.

"Jinx..?" he heard his own voice trembling. "I'm....I'm sorry...for what I said...I didnt mean it..." the unconscious elf didnt reply. Everyone turned their attention to the redhead, watching him lose all sense of reason. What surprised them even more was the tears starting to run down his cheeks. "This is all my fault..if I hadnt...if..." Jak swallowed, reaching out to put an arm around his friend's shoulders. Sig looked up at the others, not sure of what to say.

"He's not dead..", the others strained their ears to be able to hear what the big man was saying. "but I'm not sure he'll make it..." even Daxter looked sad, trying to comfort a crying Tess.

"Is there nothing we can do..?" Jak wondered. Sig shoke his head slowly, going back to stare at the floor. "I dont know....just..take care of his wounds and...pray that he'll make it." Torn bit the inside of his cheek, before slipping away from Jak, storming off into the room behind the bar.

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A couple of days went by before Jinx finally woke up. Things were looking better. He was still in pain and his wounds were still healing but he was alive. Torn was still trying to gather courage for talking to the explosvies expert, but he just couldnt find enough words to express how sorry he was. The same afternoon, he was sitting at one of the tables in the bar, alone, waiting for Jak to come out of the room they were keeping Jinx in. Tess had gone out on a walk together with Daxter, and to get some more stuff for the wounded elf's bruises. Torn was waiting patiently, playing with a ball of paper, which used to be a map, when the door to the current sickroom opened. He looked up quickly to see Jak and then his eyes widened when he saw that he was supporting Jinx. Torn didnt really know what to say, but he got up nervously.

"Hey", Jinx greeted him, his voice sounding very hoarse.

"Hey...", Torn said, staring at the other man.

"I heard you were worried about me", the explosives expert grinned cockily. Torn frowned.

"Shut up....", silence occurred then, while Jak looked back and forth between them. "Look...I...I'm really sorry...for what I said the other day...I didnt mean it....really....I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better..." the redhead looked extremely guilty. Jinx smiled a little and reached his free arm out for Torn, the other one wrapped around Jak's shoulders for support. The tattoed man looked surprised but then walked up to the other two as Jinx waved at him to come closer. The blonde then slipped his arm away from Jak and took two limping steps, wrapping his arms around Torn's neck, pulling him into a hug. The ex krimzon guard blushed slightly, daring to look at Jak. The younger elf just smiled at him, giving him thumbs up. For some reason, Torn had the feeling that Jak knew something he didnt.

"Thanks", Jinx gave him a playful smile and pulled away from the other man, ready to go back to bed again, but a hand grabbed his arm firmly, stopping him from going anywhere. Both Jak and Jinx looked slightly confused. Torn smiled smugly and pulled Jinx back to him.

"I cant...I cant forgive myself for what happened to you..", he admitted, surprising the two others again. "I thought I'd lost you...", he felt a blush spreading over his cheeks again but tried to ignore it.

"It's not your fault", Jinx looked down, feeling stupid for running off like that when he knew it wasnt safe.

"Jinx?" the blonde looked up when he heard his name and jumped as he felt the other man's mouth on his. He moaned, relaxing a little as Torn started kissing him more eagerly, and wrapped his arms around the man's neck. Torn responded by wrapping his arms around Jinx's waist, pulling him closer. Jak rolled his eyes and grinned, deciding to to leave them alone.

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Well? XD What do you think?


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